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Police forces are government organisations ostensibly charged with the responsibility of maintaining law and order. The word comes from the French, and less directly from the Greek politeia, referring to government or administration. The word police was coined in France in the 18th century. The police may also be known as a constabulary, after constables, who were an early manifestation of police officers.
In most Western legal systems, the major avowed role of the police is to discourage and investigate crimeSee crime fiction for a survey of the fictional treatment of crimes and their detection and criminals and their motives. Crime Lake is a lake between Ashton-under-Lyne and Failsworth in Greater Manchester in England. A crime is an act which violates a laws, with particular emphases on crime against property and the maintenance of public order, and if able to apprehend suspected perpetrator(s), to detain them, and inform the appropriate authorities. See criminal lawCriminal law (also known as penal law is the body of law that regulates governmental sanctions (such as imprisonment and/or fines) as retaliation for crimes against the social order. The goal of this process is that of achieving criminal justice. Accordin.
Police are often used as an emergency serviceEmergency services are services that deal with emergencies and other aspects of Public Safety. The main emergency services include: the fire service and firefighters the emergency medical service consisting of ambulance services and paramedics / emergency and may provide a public safety function at large gatherings, as well as in emergencies, disastersEmergency operations or Emergency preparedness is a set of doctrines to prepare civil society to cope with natural or man-made disasters. Disaster relief is the subset of these doctrines that is concerned with recovery efforts. This is usually a governmen, and search and rescueprehospital care rescue Search and Rescue ( acronym SAR) is an operation mounted by emergency services, often well-trained volunteers, to find someone believed to be in distress, lost, sick or injured either in a remote or difficult to access area, such a situations. To provide a prompt response in emergencies, the police often coordinate their operations with fire and emergency medical serviceEmergency medical service (EMS) is a branch of medicine that is performed in the field (i. the streets, peoples' homes, etc. by paramedics, emergency medical technicians (EMTs), and certified first responders (CFRs). Although not commonly understood, EMSs. In many countries there is a common emergency service number that allows the police, firefighters or medical services to be summoned to an emergency.
Police are also responsible for reporting minor offenses by issuing citations which typically may result in the imposition of fines, particularly for violations of traffic law. Police sometimes involve themselves in the maintenance of public order, even where no legal transgressions have occurred -- for example, in some Australian jurisdictions, people who are drunk and causing a public nuisance may be removed to a "drying-out centre" until they recover from the effects of the alcohol.